Day 92: Tantrum

by ashleighpenrod

This is a sharing weekend. But there’s so much to share, I had a hard time figuring out where to land today. Then it hit me—the ground.

Courtesy of the awesome Planet Earth Phenomenon Facebook page, here’s a picture of an adolescent elephant throwing a tantrum. On the ground. In what looks like a really nice and gushy pile of mud.

Elephants experience an array of emotions, from joy and sympathy to jealousy and rage (visit PBS.org for more on the wide variety of elephant emotions). In the balance-seeking, happiness-obsessed culture of the average, yoga-taking American, seeing an elephant tantrum is a great reminder that balance requires weight on both ends. We experience peace and distress in order to know where the middle ground lies. Light needs dark. It’s natural.